1. Field
This disclosure relates generally to integrating formation of a replacement gate and a non-volatile memory cell, and more specifically, to integrating formation of a replacement gate and a non-volatile memory cell where the non-volatile memory cell uses a thin film storage such as nanocrystals or nitride.
2. Related Art
Non-volatile memories (NVMs) are often on an integrated circuit which also performs other functions. In such cases it is undesirable to sacrifice logic performance in favor of performance of the NVM. Also it is important to avoid or minimize additional cost in achieving high performance for both the logic and the NVM. Replacement gate, which is a technique for enhancing performance by using a dummy gate for the formation of source/drains and then replacing the dummy gate with a higher performance gate such as one with higher conductance and an optimized work function, has shown promise. Replacement gate is particularly helpful in achieving both metal gate and using a high-k dielectric for the gate dielectric.
Accordingly there is a need to provide further improvement in achieving high performance while also addressing cost increase issues in integrated circuits that have both NVM and logic.